An Ending to a Sentence?

The three countries that I have lived in, and remember the most, are South Africa, Malaysia and Australia, and they all have different ways of ending a sentence.

Malaysia- This is funny, and all Malaysians know it. We make fun of it everyday. We detest it, disapprove of it, and despair over it whenever it is used in foreign countries. Yet, we somehow take a silly, nationalistic sort of pride in it as well. Yes, it is our well known 'lah', and we incorporate it into our everyday manglish language. Of course, one need not merely stick to 'lah'. 'One', 'mah', 'lor' and a dozen other words may also be used. I have used this form of ending in front of my South African friends before when talking to my mom, and all of them immediately thought I was speaking a foreign language. Funny, seeing as I can't speak anything except english. XD
Examples: Okay lah.
Where got one?
Of course LOR.

South Africa- There have been quite a few from here as well, although I have never truly gotten in the South African mood to be able to use it. The most common word used is 'hey', 'jo' also being acceptable. I do use 'hey' sometimes, my siblings have even started using it...and just aren't letting go of the word anytime soon.
Examples: I know hey!
Of course jo!

Australia- Last, but definitely not the least. There is one, and ONLY ONE word that I have ever heard expressed here at the end of the sentence. It's similar to South Africa, but with it's own slight, and, I guess, unique difference. This word, is 'aye'. And I have most definitely not gotten used to it! It's weird, and at the moment it's freaking me out a bit. =/ But I suppose this is what makes Australia unique.
Examples: How's it going aye??

Mishy <3

Whoops.

I've just realised.
An entire term of planning
A month of worrying.
A week of stressing.

And one more final week till the Year 12 Ball is here.
...

And I haven't given any thought to my hair.
How I'm going to do it.
If the style will work.
What will happen if it doesn't actually work.
=/

Uh-oh.

Mishy <3

*tick tock tick tock* "What's the time?"

This is a problem I've encountered when I moved half-way across the world.
It's not easy.
First, there's the time difference. Upon first arrival in South Africa from Malaysia, I fell asleep at 8pm and woke up at 6am. Many of my mates will know that this...is NOT me. =P
In addition to this, flying back to Malaysia was...needless to say, slightly traumatising because I fell asleep at 2am and woke up at 12pm. =/ Now I was just being a hardcore night owl.

And then there's the way people tell the time.
In Malaysia, when I asked for the time, I got something like: "2.20" for an answer, if it so happened to be 2.20pm. Or better yet: "Check your own watch." =P
In South Africa, I was greeted with a response like : "20 past."
At which point, I would think 20 past what?
Then I'd look at my watch and go: Oh, 20 past TWO...

Then, of course, if the time happened to be 2.45pm, I would get a response like: "Quarter to 3."
To which I would gaze in absolute confusion while I took all of 30 seconds to work out what a quarter to 3 was. XD
Now this isn't me being stupid, I DO know what a quarter to 3 is.
But I was so used to a straightforward '2.45' that quarter to 3 was completely out of this world for me.
It took me a complete 30 seconds if not more to process a mental image of the clock hands moving to a 'quarter to three'.

Then this is the absolute winner of it all.
Should the time have been 2.40pm, and I asked what time it was, it was incredibly likely that would get an aswer like: 'Five to quarter past.'
I have definitely gotten this response before (who from, I am no longer sure of), and it took me all of a minute to proccess the information, and convert it into a meaningful picture in my head.

So those are my times stories.
How do YOU tell the time?




Mishy <3

Why DID the Chicken Cross the Road? [A Crossfire of Viewpoints]

I got this off my dad, who found it in his inbox. I cracked up for a good half hour reading this, and I hope you will too. =)

Why did the chicken cross the road?

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on 'THIS' side of the road before it goes after the problem on the 'OTHER SIDE' of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his 'CURRENT' problems before adding 'NEW' problems.



OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.




GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.





COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road...






DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain. Alone.





GRANDPA : In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.






JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.







ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.





BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2007, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check book. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra...#@&&^(C% ........ reboot.





ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?





BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken?




AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.






COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?





Mishy <3

True Equality?

They're asking for true equality. Perhaps they really do need it?
I don't know if the mis-spelled signs were done on purpose, but at this rate, it really does look like things are not all as sunshiny and happy as we seem to think it is.

But then again is true equality ever a real?

Will I ever be treated as an equal with the white person?
Will the black people ever be rid of the classification 'nigger'?
Will women ever reach the top of the ladder without having to claw or sleep her way up?
Will we ever be able to be who we are, based purely on our abilities alone?
In fact, will we ever really lose these stereotypes that time has handed to us over the years?

I don't think so.

Many do. Many believe we've truly attained equality. But in the back of your mind...who do you think is superior?
Is it the black congressman? Or the white congressman?
Is it female manager? Or is it the male?
Is the President of China more important? Or is it the President of America?
The upcoming US elections are the perfect example. Who's more superior, the white woman? Or the black man? Both equally stereotyped against. Who will win this election?

I ask again, who do you think is superior?

True equality is a figment of the imagination. It's an idea. A thesis written by the philosophers of time- seeking the change that they imagined could come true.
True equality is inhibited by the fears of the writers of history. Men to inhibit women. Religion to inhibit religion. The winners write all- there is no exception.

It's the utopic fairytale that we all dream about.

But that's all it is. A fairytale.

Mishy <3

An Eventful Week

The week's gone by so quickly, it's been amazing.
Term 1 is FINALLY over, and I can now relax, catch up and breathe while I do all that.

Although I hope the holidays don't go at this speed too, I want to savour every last moment of sleep and rest before the First Semester Exams come along to haunt me for the rest of Term 2.

The last week alone, I was meant to hand up:
- One History Essay
- One History Summary
- One History Cognitive Test
- Two English Lit Essays
- One Human Biology In-class assessement
- One Chemistry Quiz
- One Political and Legal Studies Test
- One Maths Test

And in the end, funnily enough, I ended up doing my history essay and summary, one english lit essay, and the chemistry, P&L and maths tests out of all that. The rest were postponed for the next term due to all sorts of funny things happening during the term.
Funny, I do think. =)

English Lit is more of a discussion group than anything else. My English Lit teacher, Mr. McInerny, is one of the lenient teachers I have ever found in all my years of travelling. He's an Irish man, who can be compared to 'the Guv' in Spud- a very famous South African novel. He swears in class, tells us all to shut up, and enjoys taking a drink or two during school excursions. I don't know whether Mr. Mc., as we enjoy calling him, is anything like 'the Guv' with respect to school work though.
This is a repititon of the conversation that went on between us yesterday:
[In class]
Cynthia: Sir, I don't feel like doing an essay today.
Mr. McInerney: Okay, we'll do it tomorrow then.
*uproarious cheering from the class*
And the strange thing, is that this happens ALL THE TIME. I have never known him to say no to an 'I don't feel like it' before. Well, then again, we haven't gotten too close to any exams yet, so I suppose this could be the only reason why.
In addition to this, the English Lit room has mountains of paperwork on top of the cupboards, in between the computers, lining the shelves of the filing cabinet and completetely shielding the teacher's desk from view. So this could potentially be the other reason why he's so lenient with us.

In Human Biology, we did an experiment with cigarettes. This was indeed eventful, for, as a Year 12, I am meant to be setting a good example to the younger years. And the smell of cigarette smoke clinging onto my clothes as I parade the corridors with a pile of books is probably not the best way to show the younger years what to do. Especially since the school Captain (or the Head Girl/Boy) was in my Human Bio class doing the same experiment- it would most definitely not do for her to smell of cigarette smoke. =)

The very next day, I played around with concentrated HCl in my Chemistry class, due to the experiment that we had to do regarding Le Chatelier's principle. Obviously, Le Chatelier had nothing better to do than to observe the concentrations of molecules and how they changed colour, and to afterwards describe it in words beyond my skill of language. It was fun, no doubt, but it was rather dreary when I looked at the results after and thought to myself: Wait, this is common sense stuff, why am I learning this??? Especially since I managed to decipher the words in my textbook, only after I had done the experiment and recorded my conclusions.

So ends an incredibly eventful. Here's to hoping that this next week with be nice...and sleepy...

Mishy <3

HOLIDAYS!

There are many reasons why I enjoy the holidays.

First, I get to sleep.
Second, I can finish my work without killing myself over it.
And lastly...it's a time for to catch up on whatever needs catching up on:
--> Emailing friends.
--> Hanging out with mates.
--> Going shopping.
--> Writing english essays.
--> My Political and Legal Studies news articles.
--> The Human Biology revision.
--> Chemistry exercises.
--> And of course, my History project.

...

I take that back, WHY am I on holiday???

Mishy <3